Reports & Resources
Much has been written about the plight of rural communities and the failed policies that have led to so much hardship. Some of the most relevant research and policy-related reports on these topics include:
The Food System: Concentration and Its Impacts
Family Farm Action Alliance
This report provides the latest updated data on the state of corporate power in agriculture and food systems, as well as documenting proposals to decentralize and democratize concentrated wealth and power.
The Path to Rural Resilience in America
Center for American Progress
This report highlights a new framework for rural economic development.
Reimagining Rural Policy: Organizing Federal Assistance to Maximize Rural Prosperity
Brookings
This report highlights a new approach to rural economic development, infrastructure and public health policy.
Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America’s Rural Innovation Infrastructure
Aspen Community Strategies Group
This report highlights what’s working and who to work with for high-impact rural development policies and funding.
Progressive Governance Can Turn the Tide for Black Farmers
Center for American Progress
This report describes the systemic food system discrimination that led to massive Black land loss and outlines policy recommendations for corrective action.
Relief, Recovery, and Reimagination: A Federal Policy Agenda to Meet This Moment in Rural and Small-Town America
People’s Action
This policy document describes community- based organizations’ efforts to listen to, and respond to, rural voters’ identified policy demands.
Rural America at a Glance
USDA
Characteristics and differences affecting the resiliency and recovery of rural communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rural America: Philanthropy’s Misunderstood Opportunity for Impact
FSG
Often overlooked by national funders, rural America faces profound inequities, but also provides an untapped source of innovation.
Mapping Rural America’s Diversity and Demographic Change
Brookings
Three demographic trends from the 2020 Census that upend outdated assumptions about nonmetropolitan America and conclude with a call to embrace a more inclusive future for increasingly diverse and dynamic rural towns and regions.